


Dancing Circles Around You

by ginnyvos



Category: One Piece
Genre: Dancing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-27
Updated: 2012-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-30 05:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginnyvos/pseuds/ginnyvos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoro finds Sanji dancing. A challenge is issued and since there is nothing the shit-cook can do that Zoro can't do better, accepted. It all gets more and more out of hand from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing Circles Around You

_~Dancing Circles Around You~_  
 **Author:** ginnyvos  
 **Fandom:** One Piece **  
Pairings:** Zoro/Sanji  
 **Rating:** PG-13  
 **Warnings:** There is a kiss and some bad words, nothing to worry about  
 **Author’s Note:** The dancing in this fic is loosely based on Lindyhop, which is a kind of swing and just so much fun to do! Look it up if you want to know what it looks like. The music is big-band; Loud, jazzy and just as fun as the dancing!

~*~

Another island, another night and another bar. Nothing different from usual, except…

Zoro stood by the dance floor and stared. After a lot of wandering through the city they had landed in, he'd finally found a place that sold decent ale at a decent price but... He'd never been to a place like this. Several ladies had shot him coy or inviting looks, some even pleading. Some extended hands in a questioning motion, but he'd always quickly moved away.  
  
On the dance floor people were dancing in pairs, some a little insecure, apparently as new to this whole thing as he was, but many were twirling and jumping and swinging like it was nothing. The man would throw around the woman, directing her here and there and seemingly perfectly in control while the women closed their eyes or laughed in glee or smiled. And in the middle of it all were Nami and Sanji, dancing like they were the biggest pros in the room. He could see the looks they were drawing as Sanji swung Nami into some complicated figure and she executed it perfectly. Both were smiling, shining with glee and Zoro couldn't take his eyes off of them.  
  
A man settled himself next to him, ale in hand. They looked at Sanji and Nami in silence for while as the music marveled around them.

"They're quite the dancers aren't they?" the man asked, not looking away from the floor.  
Zoro huffed and took another sip.  
"Must've been dancing for a long time, the two of them," the man continued, "What chemistry! Ah, what I wouldn't give to get a turn to dance with _that_ spitfire, Eh?"  
Zoro hit back the last of his ale and crossed his arms. "I guess they're pretty good, I wouldn't know..."  
"You wouldn't...?" The man finally turned to look at Zoro and waggled his eyebrows. "Come on man, just look at 'er! That fire... And if you look at it right, the guy is definitely not doing all the work, even though he goes along so well it must seem like that to the untrained eye... She's got a mind of her own, that one... Would love to try and tame it! Though I guess it'd be a shame to break up such a well matched couple. Ah well, I wouldn't wanna give her up either, if she were mine..."  
Zoro grunted and glared, not wanting to admit even to himself that the guy had a point. Even so... The two of them did look good together.  
"Hey, you wanna help a guy?"  
Zoro said nothing.  
"Oh come on... I'll buy you a couple of drinks after! All you need to do is distract the guy so I can try to snatch a dance from his lady-friend, and I'll treat you after!"  
"How'd I so that?"  
"It talks! Anyway, you're a pretty big guy right? Strong and that? So you walk up to the guy and distract him... I don't care what you do, ask him what dance school he's been to for all I care... Nothing to it!"  
"Hm."  
"So you'll do it? Awesome! Thanks buddy! You're a real champ! I'll definitely buy you that drink later!"  
Zoro stared at him as he ran off and onto the dance floor, until the guy turned and gestured frantically come along. Finally, Zoro shrugged and figured that, whatever, a chance to irritate the shit-cook and witch was well worth it, especially if he got free booze out of it.

 

The sax playing on stage threw in an extra shattering solo as a sort of finale, and then the piano wound down, taking the other instruments with it as the song ended.

  
"Oi, Shit cook! Those are some fancy moves you're doing... Given up on your idiot fighting to join the circus?"  
Sanji stilled, almost dropping Nami in the process, earning him a glare and a hit on the head.  
"Marimo? What the hell is an uncivilized oaf like you doing in a sophisticated place like this?"

"What did you just say, shit-cook?"

"You're an uncivilized oaf that couldn't dance to save your life. Get out and let the normal people dance, marimo!"

"You bet I could dance if I tried! I just never had any interest in playing ballerina like you!"

"Hah! I’d dance circles around you! Dancing takes leadership skills, strength, delicacy, knowledge and feeling, marimo, three out of four you do not have and will never have!"

“If an idiot like you can do it, than I can do it no problem, curly cue!”

“Oh? So prove it marimo! Show us and the world the first dancing marimo! You’ll be an attraction!”

“I will!”

“You’d better!”

“Good!”

“Marimo!”

“Dartboard brow!”

Zoro huffed and turned, stomping off towards the exit. How the hell was he going learn to dance? He had no clue how to do that! He wasn’t going to ask anyone to help. Besides, who would he ask? The witch? Hah! He’d end up paying her by the minute! And as far as he knew, none of his crewmembers did this kind of dancing. But-

“Need help, swordsman-san?”

He whipped around and found Robin leaning against the wall by the exit. He hadn’t seen her in the club, but she must’ve exited after him. She was smiling serenely but a slight twinkle in her eyes betrayed some of her mirth. “Maybe…” he said carefully.

“As Crocodile’s second in command and right-hand woman, I needed to have a lot of skills, you are aware… I believe I could help you learn the dances… If you are interested in facing cook-san, of course…”

~*~

When Zoro entered the club later that evening, it was with Robin by his side and a whole new understanding of difficult. Defeating the world government? Piece of cake. Taking on Mihawk? Easy. Learning to dance? Incredibly fucking difficult.

He'd kept falling over his own feet, getting tangled up and ended up almost dropping Robin on several occasions. As an insult to injury, she’d dragged in Brook to provide the music, and the damn skeleton hohoho-ed every single time he made some stupid mistake. Robin, infuriating as she was, just laughed and demanded that he'd try it again. Eventually, slowly, he'd started to get a hang of the steps and managed to at least stop counting out loud. It was only then that she'd gotten really demanding.

She started adjusting his stance and telling him to turn this way and that, spontaneously sprouting hands guiding and pushing him to do things her way. Slowly he'd started to master even that and he could feel the dance growing smoother and easier. He leaned back a little to her suggestion, pushing his chest forward and could feel her doing the same as she leant into his hand. She told him to push out his ass and that must look idiotic, absurd even, but... “You are not considering letting cook-san beat you, are you?” And that was really all it took, wasn’t it?

Then the turning had started. They spun around the room, and Robin directed him to do this figure and that. They really weren’t all that hard, compared to the dancing itself, but if you combined it all… It was pretty damn near impossible. He was Zoro the Pirate Hunter though, the man who would one day be the best swordsman in the world. He was _not_ about to let a puny little dance get the better of him! And so here he was, entering the same club again, looking over the dance-floor and spotting his crew-mates easily.

It looked like Nami had given up on dancing for the time being; instead she’d positioned herself into the lap of some obviously very wealthy guy who was whispering something in her ear. She raised her glass of champagne to him and he grinned and they flirted some more.

Uninterested, Zoro left them for what they were; by the end of the night, the witch would’ve drained him dry of any spare change he might’ve on him and he would be left to go home alone. Nothing new there.

His gaze landed on Sanji and he felt Robin following his eyes. The cook was dancing with some woman, light blonde hair and jewels in her ears that he could see sparkling all the way from where he stood in the entrance of the club. She looked like she had anything she’d ever wanted and Zoro didn’t doubt that the cook had made sure that she did. He couldn’t help but snort.

Robin giggled. “Maybe you would like to dance with Cook-san rather than me, Swordsman-san?” she suggested, smiling.

Zoro shrugged. “As if… Just can’t believe he’s letting another wench take advantage of him. Let’s do this.”

Robin shrugged gracefully and followed him to the dance floor, her arm still loosely in his. They positioned themselves near Sanji and slowly started to dance, Zoro straining to find the beat of the music while Robin started moving and more or less forced him along in the right rhythm if he didn’t want to look like a complete idiot. It took him a moment but then he noticed that it was indeed easier if he let her do the hard work. It was a little like fighting, maybe, in which he’d let his swords guide the way and simply provide guidance because often times, his blades and reflexes knew much better and faster what to do and just where to hit his enemy.

He knew the exact moment Sanji discovered them. It was obvious from the sudden burn of eyes on his back and the non-sounds that indicated that the cook was too infuriated to even try to talk. For a change Zoro knew why as well; pure jealousy. The stupid cook was jealous because Zoro was dancing with one of his precious ladies. This was good.

Grinning evilly, he added a bit of an extra bounce to his steps, stood just that little bit more upright and pulling Robin a little closer.

Robin let out an amused little sound and Zoro grinned. Oh yes, take that shit-cook! He might not be able to do all that fancy fly-by twirly wirly stuff the cook could, but he was dancing with Nico Robin… And he _knew_ that counted for something in the cook's book!

“You’re doing quite well, swordsman-san… It seems dancing in front of Cook-san inspires you…”

“What?” Zoro let her swing out like she’d taught him and then pulled her back in what she’d called ‘closed position’. “What are you getting at?”

“Nothing, nothing, please concentrate on the dance, Swordsman-san…”

Zoro gritted his teeth and concentrated. If there was something Roronoa Zoro was good at, it was at focus and right now his focus was on upstaging the stupid cook at his own game. And so he swung his hips and did all the other little things Robin had told him about earlier and had seemed completely ridiculous at the time.

Past Robin’s hair as they swept by, he could see the cook had returned to his partner with a determined expression at his face and started to dance. For a moment, he watched Sanji upping the ante of his dancing and saw the girl look slightly troubled.

For some reason, this made him happy and all the more determined to give the cook and everyone in the club a show they would not soon forget. He might not be able to execute the moves as perfectly as Sanji or know them as well, but he was doing his figures and swirls and he was swinging his hips for all he was worth and Robin wasn’t complaining. As a matter of fact, she had that cryptic smile on her face that made her seem amused at the silliness of the world while she had no part in it. Which was odd, since she was right there.

Zoro shrugged it off and concentrated harder. It really wasn’t all that different from fighting. The music got faster and more energetic and he swung Robin out again, let her twirl. It seemed like the right thing to do. He pulled her back in, swung her out again and back in. They hadn’t practiced this, but it was a matter of combining the things he did know how to do. She gave him a rare cheerful smile and he grinned back. He wasn’t about to admit it to anyone, but maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t so bad after all. He swung her out again, but something went wrong. She didn’t quite come back at him as he was used to. He caught her hand behind her back, and she did a cool little twirl the other way before coming at him again. That was pretty neat. He tried again, and it worked, so he incorporated that in-between the moves he already knew.

 

The musicians upped the ante a little more, and as he swung Robin out again, he could see the cook holding the girl around her waist and throwing her up in the air. He was pretty sure Robin would be able to do that too. He tried. It didn’t work quite the same as what he’d been going for, but it looked cool. There was a lull in the music and he did a couple of normal steps. “You’re doing that quite well, Swordsman-san… You must be a natural!” Robin said, and her eyes were sparkling. He wanted to say something to that, dismiss it maybe, but the music picked up again and there was no time to think. He didn’t even know when he’d stopped counting and just fell into the rhythm of the dance, but at some point he must’ve. It was easy, he found, if he didn’t think about it too hard. He concentrated on the moves instead.

By the time the music wound down and the two couples came to a halt, a sudden applause rang through the hall. Sanji and Zoro hardly heard it as they glared at each other.

“See?” Zoro said finally, “Piece of cake… Nothing to be proud of!”

“Robin-swan, dear, how did you put up with this uncultured pig for so long? I cannot think how much of a torture it was for you! Despite his many, many faults, I must say he did rather well… I’m sure it’s all the marvelous influence of my beautiful Robin-swan though! My generous Robin-swan, how wonderful of you to help this idiot despite his savage ideas of dancing! How hard it must’ve been, how-“

Zoro had been resisting the urge to hit the idiot over the head all evening, but now he shrugged and gave in. “That’s enough already, shit-cook!”

“You wanna try that again, Marimo?”

“Yeah, I want to do that again!”

“Let’s take this outside!”

“Let’s!”

~*~

Much later, the two of them were leaned to the wall of the club, Zoro nursing a bloody egg on his forehead and Sanji a severely bruised chest. From inside, the cheerful dance music spilled over them as they tried to catch their breath after a tiring if very satisfying bout of fighting.

“So, you had Robin teach you to dance huh?” Sanji asked, looking into the distance rather than at Zoro.

“She offered!” Zoro knew he sounded defensive but he couldn’t help it, and, well, she had… Sort of.

“You did pretty ok for a first time. Not as good as me of course, first time I danced, I owned the dance floor, but… Pretty good.”

Zoro recognized the compliment for what it was, and took it to heart.

“Although of course there’s lots of room to improve! Like that hip-swinging of yours! Much too wild! And you need to support your lady properly, and-“

“If you know it so well, why don’t you show it to me, huh?” the words were out of his mouth before Zoro could think them over and they left Sanji in startled silence. “If you, uh, want to… And… Euhmn… I bet you’re crap as a teacher!” the last was said in a boisterous voice, a last ditch effort to preserve his pride.

Challenge set, there was no way Sanji could back out.

~*~

Another island, another night, another bar, another dance-floor and another competition.  The band was pretty good, the ladies pretty hot, and the booze cheap enough to give Zoro an excuse to go to the only bar hosting a swing-dancing event.

Sanji had been at it all night, dancing with Nami, with Robin and with just about every other girl in the room. Zoro had done a couple of dances of his own. Some with Robin, who noted that he’d certainly improved since the last time and was he taking lessons? With one of those damn mysterious smiles of her. The compliment was a welcome one though, and he was saved from answering when the music picked up and he got to swing her around some more, show her just how much he’d improved. He even danced one dance with Nami. The guy in the last dance had been right, she did like to run the whole show, using him as nothing but a backdrop to show off what she could do. At first he tried to do his own thing, but eventually he decided it was easier to just let her do whatever the hell she pleased and tried to make sure he was there where she needed him to be. Sanji would kill him if he dropped her and she’d probably fine the hell out of him. Besides, it was worth it to see the look on Sanji’s face.

There were a couple more girls who shyly came to ask for a dance. He even took some of them up to it. Most of the evening though, he sat at the bar, drank and looked at the dancers. Somewhere during the evening, the rest of the Strawhats seemed to find their way into the place as well, one after the other coming in and staying to watch or dance or have fun. Brook joined the musicians, Chopper got doted on, it turned out that Franky could dance as well – though his moves were… Different, to say the least – Ussopp bragged about his dancing prowess but stayed anxiously away from the dance-floor and Luffy eventually demanded Sanji to dance with him as well and wouldn’t accept no for an answer. It was the regular mayhem and Zoro relaxed into it with a familiarity that he couldn’t have even imagined back before a scrawny kid had told him that he was going to be pirate king and had decided that Zoro would be his first crewmate. It was home.

As the party wound down, most of the locals dragged their way home, Franky walked out with some lady that he was loudly exclaiming he could not just allow to walk home on her own, his younger crewmembers were snoring in a pile of limbs in the corner of the dance-floor and Nami and Robin had disappeared to where-ever it was they disappeared to and Sanji and Zoro were the only ones left standing.

The band had called last song and Zoro made his way down to where Sanji was standing, looking after Franky as if he was about the kick the man to bits. Or in the bits. Whatever.

“Wanna dance, shit-cook?”

“You think you can handle me, Marimo?”

“Hell yeah!”

As they swung each other around the dance-floor, neither of them really leading or following, just moving to the rhythm of the music and the rhythm of the other’s movements, Zoro knew for sure that he’d been right all along; There was nothing to dancing at all and it was exactly like fighting with the shit-cook. Or maybe they had been dancing all along, not fighting at all? It didn’t bear thinking about. He threw the shit-cook in the air and knew the near-miss of a foot to his face when Dartboard brow came down was far from accidental. Sanji swung him out, and Zoro ducked and turned, and Sanji came at him and with the final cresendo in the music, they all but collided and just stood for a while, each holding the other and not willing to be the first to let go. That was when Zoro decided that he really didn’t care and did what he should’ve done ages ago; he crushed their mouths together. Their tongues went to battle.

Another island, another night, another bar, another dance and another competition, but nothing had changed. Well, not much anyway.


End file.
